'Roseanne' survived without its star. Can other shows do the same?

In this image released by ABC, Roseanne Barr, left, and John Goodman appear in a scene from the comedy series "Roseanne." The comedy about the blue-collar Conner family and its brassy matriarch returned in March as a success for ABC and Roseanne Barr but was canceled in May after Barr's racist slam of President Barack Obama's adviser Valerie Jarrett. ABC called her tweet "abhorrent."(Photo: Adam Rose/ABC via AP)

But fortunately for Laurie Metcalf, John Goodman, and the other Roseanne Barr co-stars, "The Conners" has ended up on the plus side.

On Dec. 15, Deadline Hollywood reported that negotiations were underway for a second season of the show, hastily spun off from the hit ABC series "Roseanne" after a controversial tweet by Barr led to that show's abrupt cancellation in June.

Some 13.6 million people watched the premiere episode of "The Conners," the new version of the show without Barr, on October 16, 2018, and while that number has dropped off a bit (8.9 million saw the most recent episode, on Dec. 11), it is still — unlike Roseanne Barr's tweet — respectable.

"We [were] having a great time, a wonderful time," Metcalf told The Record in June, just as the scandal broke. "We were there for the work."

Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), left, and her brother-in-law, Dan (John Goodman), butt heads after he questions the motives of her boyfriend on an episode of ABC's 'The Conners.'(Photo: Byron Cohen, ABC)

"Roseanne" is an example of a new phenomenon: the Flatworm Franchise.

You remember flatworms from middle school biology class. Those are the worms that can supposedly live — for a time, anyway — with their heads cut off. Something like that is happening, now, in entertainment.

Falling stars

"Roseanne" isn't the only show that's been forced, abruptly, to figure out how to carry on without its leading man or woman. Consider Kevin Spacey, lead actor of the hit series "House of Cards." Until, that is, he got hit with multiple charges of indecent assault and battery (he's set to be arraigned Jan. 7).

The Frank Underwood character was written out after star Kevin Spacey was fired last fall following allegations that he sexually assaulted actor Anthony Rapp when he was a minor.(Photo: David Giesbrecht, David Giesbrecht, Netflix)

Or consider Garrison Keillor, beloved host of radio's "The Prairie Home Companion." Until, that is, he was accused of multiple instances of sexual misconduct.

In our scandal-ridden age, when no old tweet or sordid episode remains buried, today's celebrity can be tomorrow's defendant. Showrunners, these days, have to be prepared for a new challenge: how to un-hitch their wagon from a star.

Garrison Keillor(Photo: Jeff Baenen/AP)

"House of Cards" did it by killing off Spacey's character, President Underwood, between seasons 5 and 6. It was not an auspicious move: the season 6 opener got 2.9 million U.S. viewers, as opposed to 4.4 million for season 5's first episode, according to Variety. More than one critic got a chance to use the line they'd probably been saving up for six years: "House of Cards," they said, "collapsed" without Spacey.

"A Prairie Home Companion" not only got rid of its host, it got rid of its name. Starting on Dec. 16, 2017, it became known as "Live from Here," now hosted by Chris Thile. The reboot has so far averaged 2.6 million listeners a week, as opposed to the 4 million "Prairie Home Companion" had at its height, but has gained ground among young listeners (a 22 percent gain for those aged 25 to 34, according to American Public Media).

"Roseanne," of course, was itself a reboot: a second look at the 1980s sitcom family, led by loveable loudmouth Barr, that has always earned kudos as one of the few nuanced TV depictions of working-class characters. Her return to TV, in March 2017, was an event: 18.2 million viewers watched the premiere episode.

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At a special screening for first episode of spin-off "The Conners," stars Lecy Goranson, Michael Fishman and Maya Lynne Robinson talk Roseanne Barr's exit from the original show. (Oct. 17)
AP

But in other ways, the new show got off to a rocky start. It was knocked for its alleged "dog whistle" appeals to the Trump base, an impression that was shared by the president himself. "It was about us!" Trump crowed in March.

Then on May 28 came the infamous tweet by Roseanne — on record as a Trump supporter — about Valerie Jarrett, an African-American woman who served as a senior adviser to President Barack Obama: "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj." Barr apologized, said she was on Ambien at the time, but ABC canceled the show, with the network's president of entertainment calling the comment "abhorrent."

Appropriately — if grimly — the Roseanne character is said to have died on the show from a drug overdose.

All very sad, Metcalf said back in June. Especially since she, Barr, Goodman, Sara Gilbert and the rest of the "Roseanne" cast never talked politics on the set. But they seem to be carrying on, Roseanne or no Roseanne.

"I don't think the show [had] any sort of leanings politically," Metcalf said. "I think it's really balanced. I was proud of the way the writers shaped it. It's current, but it's also nostalgic."